A lot of research is being done on this subject, which initiated since 2008 during economic crisis with IMB introducing smarter planet concepts[1]. Some people fear smart cities as they think it may not be environment friendly and birds and butterflies would probably vanish away with digital trees coming all around…Some think these are new ways to sell technology and new materials in cities. Well, it’s up to us what we want to accept or reject with application of technology in our cities. We need to educate ourselves and more awareness, participation is much needed. These concepts can bring better solutions if oriented towards our community goals. We need to upgrade our skills and knowledge to best understand and then use application of technology. Fifteen years back we feared computers and digital gadgets and now we fear application of technology in cities for our betterment. It’s our drawback in being slow in exploring, learning n applying opportunities with technology. Traditional planning methods dint have access to rich accurate data. We dint have easy ways to capture large data effectively and perform analysis on complex data sets to fetch meaning. Now we have opportunities to base our decisions with big data and analytics. We have tools for real time data analysis to make meaning and evaluate before deciding. We need to learn and upgrade ourselves to pace up with fast growing technology.
IMB may call it smarter city[2] or CISCO may call it intelligent urbanisation[3]. Technology is the key ingredient for making it smart. As per smart city council - energy and telecommunication are components of smart city. Fundamentally smart city has three aspects and that is collecting information about cities, communicating it where it is required using RF mesh, power line, satellite, fibre, cable etc then crunching data for insights and values. Smart grids will lay the foundation for smarter management of energies backed with alternate energy sources included with it. Smart grid uses digital information and communication technology that will allow making insights for better management of our resources and continuously improve services. Broadly with smart city theory, information and communication technology will enable cities interact with citizens for enhanced services. Leading to better management of resources and optimising strength of infrastructure. It will lead to smarter Buildings, transportation, smarter public safety, smarter education, smarter healthcare, smarter water and energy uses, and smarter government (e-governance). Smart cities will help make better housing options for ‘all’ class based on direct information coming from citizens.
Thus making intelligent use of available resources using technology for making sustainable, liveable cities for ‘all’ is what may be called smart cities in my opinion. It would be important to bring to your notice that smart cities formation may also be community driven. Many smarter communities shall together form smart cities. It is important for people to participate in urban revitalisation. Hence important to educate people on this subject related to cities & technology. Empower and enable people to maximise opportunities with information and community technology. If big IT companies do not reach every community or slums or poor neighbourhoods then too we want to make all our communities smart. We need to think long term in real time. Community owned Network and network of network kind of model is what that we need to consider implementing that will be by the people and for the people. This way we make data a public asset and not controlled by a 3rd party.
Pallavi P
[1] Donnelly, C. H. (n.d.). A THEORY OF SMART CITIES. http://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings55th/article/viewFile/1703/572?origin=publication_detail
[2] Smarter Cities. (2014). Retrieved 09 19, 2015, from IBM.com: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_cities/overview/
[3] Srivalsan Ponnachath. (n.d.). Intelligent Urbanization and its relevance for India. Retrieved 09 19, 2015, from cisco.com: http://www.cisco.com/web/IN/about/leadership/intelligent_urbanization.html
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